The large parasitic capacitance of through silicon vias (TSVs) generally causes a large dynamic power dissipation while transmission signals are switching at the TSVs. In some approaches, the voltage swing of the transmission signals is reduced to reduce the power dissipation, but extra power supplies, complicated circuit designs, and/or static power consumption are required. For example, in one approach, to avoid the extra supply voltages, a level shifter is designed into the TSV driver-receiver pair. In another approach, the circuit that reduces the signal swing uses a dynamic diode-connected driver that also consumes a static current or static power. In another approach, in addition to the static power consumption, the circuit used to reconstruct the reduced signal to the full swing signal is complicated.
Like reference symbols in the various drawings indicate like elements.